Casa Dorinda (Montecito, Calif.)
Dates
- Existence: 1918
Biography
Casa Dorinda was the three-story, Mission Revival–style house designed by Carleton Winslow (1876–1946) that Anna Barnes Bliss and William Henry Bliss built in Montecito, California, near Santa Barbara, in 1916–1918. The eighty-room winter home, which cost a reported $250,000 to build, had a bell tower, imported marble fireplaces, Islamic hanging lamps, a sun room with gold leaf walls and carved ebony doors, pegged plank flooring, antique stained glass windows, and an organ loft. Anna Barnes Bliss and William Henry Bliss used the house to entertain friends and dignitaries, including King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium (whose visit was arranged by Herbert Hoover), and to offer musical evenings with artists such as Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Jascha Heifetz, and Mikhail Elman. When Anna Barnes Bliss died in 1935, the property passed to her daughter Mildred Barnes Bliss. In 1942, Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss offered Casa Dorinda to the U.S. Navy for use as a recuperation and recreation center. In 1946, Dr. Homer F. Barnes purchased Casa Dorinda and opened the Montecito School for Girls, which closed in 1956. After other transitions, Casa Dorinda became a retirement residence in 1970.
Source: James Frush, Casa Dorinda: Historical Background and Cultural Heritage (Montecito, Calif., 1973).
Found in 5 Collections and/or Records:
13-03 Casa Dorinda bridge letter report
13-19 Letter reports Casa Dorinda interior alterations
13-23 Casa Dorinda Master Plan Phase 1-2
15-17 Casa Dorinda Montecito Planning Commission letter
When Belgian royalty visited here, 1977-10-16
Six scrapbooks containing clippings of all thirty years of the weekly local history columns written by Mrs. Rouse for the Santa Barbara News-Press newspaper. Numbering approximately 1,500, the articles are cataloged by keywords in the Gledhill Library Subject Index. See Arrangement note for date range of articles within each scrapbook.